What I want to know: what role would a video codec called h.264 and software patents play in all of this…?

Mass surveillance is so much easier if there is just one codec and if an american organisation, the MPEG-LA – still protected by the US government – controls the moving image worldwide…

RAP NEWS 19 – Whistleblower

Written by Giordano Nanni & Hugo Farrant – Juice Rap News

– Good afternoon, viewers, thank you for clicking
through to view this exclusive brand new edition
of Juice Rap News back through with a global transmission
with your host Robert Foster, and we’re glad to begin

by introducing this routine interview scheduled today,
with our regular US guest, now director of the NSA,
General Baxter – Hi – Can you provide via satellite
an update on the state of Empire? – Bob, I have to confide

I’m satisfied. In fact, I got no axe to grind.
Our Nobel Peace prize President mastermind
has a healthy appetite for sending drones to smash the lives
of Brown children… Muslims… I mean terrorist hoodlums

Egregious… – Goddamn right we agree it’s just;
Every American’ll feel hot pangs of pride when they hear of this.
But guess what I’m most excited about that’s finally happening
– What? – The court martial of Private Bradley Manning

Three years without trial and a touch of torture
That’s how we punish dissent in the Free World Order.
After this, no one will dare blow whistles, or leak intel
or question our right to read every single freaking email… oops

– Did you just say you read everyone’s emails?
– What? emails? no, we don’t read, scan, track, record and store every detail
– At all? – no sir. not wittingly…
perhaps a few billion emails… accidentally

– A hero has leaked classified documents finally proving
that the NSA has secretly obtained access directly to all
the servers of Facebook, Apple, Yahoo, Youtube, Skype, and Google,
this PRISM system for spying on users from the dark side of the Moon’ll

record everything, that arrives on screens: emails, chats, Grindr feed
Robert, it took great courage from this whistle blower to decide to leak
they’ve taken a great risk in getting us, their fellow citizens
this critical glimpse into what is really happening.. behind the scenes

– Mark Zuckerberg, your position? – word, sit back, listen
you rocking with Zuckerberg, fuckin’ nerd tactician
– So PRISM? – what’s that, ‘PRISM’? Never even heard of that system
yeah we got a program running, but we call it FASCISM

– Uh okay then…General, would you like to make a statement?
– I’m disgusted – You are? that’s amazing
– I had no idea that this could occur, It’s devastating
– shocking, I concur; so will there be an investigation?

– You betcha, we’re gonna get those who broke their oath to the law
– Wonderful… – And hold them responsible, this has gone too far.
– I think the whole world feels the same… – Call Gitmo!
I’m personally going to torture whoever leaked all this info

– Wait, what…? – We’ve become a frickin’ culture of leaks
What if every uppity geek who happens not to agree
with the state’s tyranny decided to expose it to all and sundry
– That might lead to a revolution – Indeed! see what I mean?

Look, we welcome this debate, openly. free speech is sanctified
– Ok then, does the NSA keep… – Sorry that’s classified
– so what are the laws for the… – EEENG!! Access denied
– Well, how can we see – Oops debate time has expired…

– Ah hold on, we’re picking up another feed: this time from Hong Kong
Glen?! – It’s me again, I got an update on what’s going on
– Greenwald! We’re gonna prosecute you for reason… I mean treason
– Uh-uh! your threats are no match for my shield and

you’ll cower under the weight of words when I’m weilding my pen-sword
By the power of Greenwald!
– Ah… did you have an update for the people? – oh, yeah… now World,
meet the brave leaker, Edward Snowden
He’s made a video to reveal his motives for whistle-blowin’

Workin a for dem N-SA down in Hawaii
findin-a me some paper that na be irie
’bout de Babylon put fire ;pon de civil liberty
so me decide fi trade me safety
for de sake o-defend all-ah-me city-zen privacy
if ya see supm, say supm, follow me, and be

– Well, dear viewers, that’s about it for this edition
But it wouldn’t be complete without some final questions
Whistleblowers. They leak in the public interest.
now what remains to be known is: is the public interested?

If so, this might be a good day to exhibit it:
Ignorance is a choice, in the age of the internet
Many consider this all very bewildering
Some praise these acts as heroic, worthy of mimicking

Others condemn them as illegal and prohibited
But, can’t both be equally applicative?
To be good humans we’re sometimes called upon to be bad citizens.
Some nations were even born by breaking laws of the tyrranous.

Do you support heroes from days of yore
who in order to cause reforms disobeyed the law?
Then what about those in the present who heed the same call?
This is Robert Foster for Rap News, good day to you all

WebM (VP8): now with “fees” for the patent trolls, MAFIAA companies

The only real open-source alternative to the Content Mafia’s h.264 video codec died earlier this months when Google payed off the patent trolls and thieves from the MPEG-LA with “licensing fees” for the – until then – “open-source” VP8 codec. The MPEG-LA is the organisation that steals video footage from every child, woman and man who pushes a record button on an h.264 camera (like on every “smart phone”).

You do not own your own work with h.264. Never. It belongs to a patent pool behind which stand companies like Apple, Microsoft, Samsung, Sony and some others.

VP8 was a real alternative. It is interesting that the MPEG-LA never had a problem with the codec before it was open-sourced. It had been in use in Sykpe for years already – and still is…

This is why patents are so very wrong, this is how the late Thieve Jobs – excuse me Steve Jobs got rich(“All video codecs are covered by patents. A patent pool is being assembled to go after Theora and other “open source” codecs now.” – blogs.fsfe.org, 30.04.10)

This is where I stop entirely with publishing online video

I was so upset when the true story behind h.264 (osnews, 01.05.10) came out that I almost stopped publishing online video entirely. Then came an alternative. It did not work as well as the other codec, but it was there.

Now there is nothing. *)

I will now stop uploading any video to the web as long as there is no free and open-source video codec available. I do not support, work for – directly or indirectly – patent pools, their lawyers that steal my work, the companies hiding behind the patent pool that make money from stealing my work, the coders who develop anything related to h.264 and thereby steal my work. *)

I am deeply, deeply disgusted by all of you. Your business is based on stealing. Your business is based on stealing the moving image from society. History will judge you.

If you read this and care for the moving image, if you are film or videomaker: I urge you to consider boycotting 100% all companies on the list, as well as ending any collaboration with any of the “research institutes” on the list (like Frauenhofer).

Google you can keep VP8 (WebM) to yourself. I do not want it any more. It is MPEG-LA now. You are now paying off Content MAFIAA companies like Apple:

*) Update 29.03.13: There is Theora of course, the only working choice left now as far as I know. Unfortunately (thanks to software patents) it can not compete with the others in terms of quality at this point. I may start a new video blog project one day with Theora downloads, but without embeds from YoutTube etc. my options for reaching an audience will be limited…!

Like this:

8,9% and I am one of them

8,9% of Berlin voted for the Pirate Party last month and I’m proud to say that I was able to contribute to that outcome: while being an Austrian living in Berlin I am allowed to vote in my district. For the first time there was the candidate “Piratenpartei” on the ballot and that’s where I made my cross. And So did many other. And news that close to 10% of Berlin is now in Pirate Party hands spread quickly around the globe (blog.p2pfoundation.net).

I was actually a bit surprised about just how wide that news travelled: it seems people have been waiting for this (blog.p2pfoundation.net). Those 8,9% for the Pirates in Berlin are a signal for others: if Berlin can do it your city, your country can do it too.

And guess what, now after the success in Berlin the German Pirate Party gets around 7% in polls – that is 7% Germany wide: should there be general elections next Sunday we’d had the Piratenpartei sitting in the German Bundestag.

And there is still much more potential for sure: I would not be surprised at all should Pirate Parties around Europe get two digit results in elections within the next five years.

People this is it, this is the time to get out and vote for the Pirates. And if you can’t vote let your family know, your father, mother, brother, sister, grandfather, grandmother, uncle, aunt etc.:

Let them know why you want the Pirate Party in your (local) government, explain to them why the Pirate Party is like “a patch for Democracy” as I read somewhere.

Let them know why (software) patents are truly evil and why Copyright is in fact Copywrong.

Let them know about the Patent Trolls and Copyright Thieves.

Let them know about h.264.

Let them know that Apple, Microsoft, Sony, Samsung, Frauenhofer Institute and all those others h.264 patent holders are S-T-A-E-L-I-N-G everyone’s video footage using software patents (you do not own your own h.264 video footage, not even after transcoding to e.g. an open format: licensing fees for any “commercial” use will need to be paid to all those thieves hiding behind the acronym MPEG-LA).

Let your people know the truth about why a Bill Gates or a Steve Jobs could “achieve” what they did in those last 30 years:

Gates, Jobs etc. are a simply a special kind of breed of thieves who (while now retired used to) organise, set up and run a wide range of (in the US legal, in Europe for sure quite illegal) extortion schemes based on software patents and related “legal” constructs. Latest examples: the Samsung tablet that Apple tries so hard to block via court orders or the fact that Microsoft will make money with basically every Android phone you buy ($5/phone Protection Money for the IP lawyers thanks to software patents).

Or maybe there is something else that makes you angry…? Maybe it’s the RIAA or the MPAA (better know as MAFIAA)…?

There surely are many good reasons to be very angry these days (WikiLeaks censorship, youngsters/hackers who defend Democracy put in jail, Greece looted by the Banks, …) and each reason is a good one to turn your anger into real political change by voting Pirate Party!

This is our chance to get rid of those governments that have been corrupted be the Content and Copyright Mafia.

This is our chance to get rid of ACTA and all future attempts by the Content Mafia who is trying to undermine Democracy in order to save their dying business model, a model that never was right in the first place, a business model that is based on stealing but never giving back to society. One of the best examples being The Walt Disney Company and the Micky Mouse Protection Act from 1998.

Occupy Wall Street and World Revolution

“I see Corporatism, Fascism, chronic Capitalism. I don’t see a free market. I see a police state, I see an American Empire, I see 700 military bases in 135 foreign countries. I see 5000 dead bodies in Iraq. A welfare warfare state which gives out billions of dollars in foreign aid for dictators (…).”

(From the Voice Over/interview at the beginning of the embedded video about the current Occupy Wall Street movement:)

One more thing…

Now that we have Freedom from Steve:

Steve Jobs,

You personally may get away with this and keep making your dirty money for quite a while. Yet not forever.

Thing is you are old and I am so much younger than you. Chances are I’ll still be around when you are long gone. And I’ll make sure the world will hear the true story about h.264. I’ll make sure that people get a chance to remember Steve Jobs for who he really was. You are no innovator, your are no inventor. At the end of the day you are simply that: a thief.

Yes, it’s always very sad when someone dies and I’m sure many including his family will miss him. Yet death does not mean you have to be dishonest. The man may have done a lot for the Apple shareholders and may have pushed the industry in the directions he wanted, but for me personally he is one the biggest disappointments when it comes to role models:

I used to watch his Apple sales shows back in the ’90 on a Performa 5200, connected to the internet via modem. He was a brilliant sales person. He really was. Unfortunately he was not honest about his products shortcomings and he betrayed a whole generation of artists, film makers and young ones who bought his h.264 pitch. Steve Jobs choose to betray and steal from everyone (h.264 video footage) so that he could build a monopoly around/by using the moving image:

* He tried to push h.264 as the only legal video codec for distribution: when you already own an online store for movies (iTunes) as well as parts of a Hollywood film studio (Disney, before that Pixar) this simply is extremely greedy and shows you do not like competition at all. For over ten years open-source audio/video codec developers were severly bullied by all those who stand behind h.264.In his own words (blogs.fsfe.org):

“All video codecs are covered by patents. A patent pool is being assembled to go after Theora and other “open source” codecs now.”

* At the same time, knowingly, just as all the other h.264 patent holders, he was happy with stealing your and mine h.264 video footage: I got an h.264 camera and went out shooting footage, for weeks, months. I was planing to use that footage commercially until I found out about the scheme that Jobs etc. had set up/were happy to make their dirty deals with: the MPEG-LA.

Jobs not only wanted a monopoly on distribution but he also wanted to control independent content, e.g. accepted – and never communicated – the MPEG-LA’s rules e.g. about how long (!!!) your h.264 online video can be before you have to start paying fees to them. Steve Jobs was prepared to and did sell his user, did betray those artists who trusted him and who supported his company in all those years when Apple almost went out of business.

Steve Jobs betrayed us with h.264. I won’t forget that. And I will make sure that this story reaches as many people as possible, now and in the future.

A monopoly on the moving image is simply a very, very dangerous thing. It would be highly irresponsible not to let future generations know about this. Basically what Jobs opened up/promoted is a road to Fascism. People need to hear the h.264 story so that something like this can never happen again!

To all you Corporate Fascists, to all copyright thieves and patent trolls, to all the abusers, to the Joe Bidens, the Steve Jobs and the Bill Gates of this world (and their patent troll Moloch organisation MPEG-LA that steals everyones h.264 video footage *), h.264 still being used in every Apple smart phone as we speak while the first Android phones using the open-source WebM/VP8 codec are coming out right now), to all you greedy thieves:

I turned 40 earlier this year and I believe I now have seen enough crap and need to clearly warn the generations coming after me! You know those who may or may not vote for you at the next election and opt for the Pirate Party instead, or those who may stop buying your products because they realise you simply screw them wherever you can (would you trust a company with non-linear video editing that at the same time holds patents on a video codec that you (may need to!) use and that you need to pay licensing fees for every time you use your own work commercially…?!).

“Yes, in view of the marketplace uncertainties regarding patent licensing needs for such technologies…”

= “In view of the FUD we spread…”

“…there have been expressions of interest from the market urging us to facilitate formation of licenses…”

= “…we’ve been repeatedly told that we are nothing but a patent troll Moloch (supported by Apple, MS and others)…”

“…that would address the market’s need for a convenient one-stop marketplace alternative to negotiating separate licenses with individual patent holders…”

= “…that is simply collecting protection money…”

“…in accessing essential patent rights for VP8 as well as other codecs, and we are looking into the prospects of doing so.”

= “…since we actually believe we own the moving image per se.”

Once more the translation:

“In view of the FUD we spread we’ve been repeatedly told that we are nothing but a patent troll Moloch (supported by Apple, MS and others) that is simply collecting protection money since we actually believe we own the moving image per se.”